Rent Strikes Harlem

The Rent Strikes can be described as successful insofar as they spurred government action to improve housing in Harlem, and helped to develop a broader consciousness that led to rent strikes across the United States. For example, two months after the initiation of the strike, the City of New York agreed to purchase two dilapidated apartments from landlords with an excessive number of violations. By May of 1964, strike efforts (partially led by Gray) expanded to over 30 cities in the United States. In December, the city initiated plans to improve dilapidated housing and protect low-income residents in Harlem. Close to two years after the strike began, the city initiated the rehabilitation of 37 buildings in Harlem, under the supervision of
This model can prove to be especially relevant today. A recent study, titled “Eviction and the Reproduction of Urban Poverty,” has found that eviction serves as another iteration of housing discrimination (in that it disproportionately affects low-income black women). Similar to the landlord abuse that triggered the Harlem Rent Strikes, this form of housing discrimination is, to the observer, innocuous in nature-- since it is not marked by overt violence or exclusion. Battling eviction only through political means is not currently possible, due to the (currently) ineffectual and inefficient nature of government. These conditions, in fact, are not totally dissimilar to the conditions we saw prior to the Harlem Rent Strikes. The 2016 election, and the recent (lack of) productivity of the U.S. federal government has led many to be disillusioned with its capabilities. Many see growing tensions within the Democratic Party as well, and are unsure if the party’s future entails a discussion of the still rampant racism and discrimination that African-Americans face in the
The continued gentrification of urban centers, though providing a larger tax base and improved funding for cities, has come at the cost of increased housing prices. Housing costs have increased in cities across the U.S., and the percentage of income required to pay for housing has increased as well. The force of gentrification (for neighborhoods that have yet to experience it fully) can also lead to increased concentrations of poverty in low-income neighborhoods. This has produced dilapidation in urban areas that is similar to what occurred in 1950-60’s